Omaha daily bee., 1887-08-21
JESSE JAMES PHYSICIAN.
DR.. ReddinR Tells How the Desperate
Lived and Died.

Chicago Mail: DIR. A. j. Redding, now
a resident practitioner in Aurora. with an
Office on the island, was the family physi-
clan Of jesse James during the last two
years of that desperate outlaw s life.
James was known in his st. Joseph home
as MIR. Howard, and there were probably
not half dozen men living in or near
the little city who knew that Howards
and the famous desperate were one and
the same person. Dr. Redding, who is a
heavy.set, shrewd- looking, middle-aged
man, braced back in his chair yesterday
afternoon when talking to reporter for
now just as ne looked when l last saw
him. l think that was about three years
ago. A slight man of your build, who
would not turn the scale at 140 pounds,
quick and agile, and the last person in
the world l would have taken for the
desperate Jesse James of whom I
had read. 1 was physician for the
knew him as Mr.. Howard lie lived
just two blocks from my place, on the
top OF Il bluff, in a one and a half story
frame house. From his house he had
good view of all parts of the city, the
surrounding country, and clear over into
Kansas. My honse was at the corner of
Eleventh and Lafayette streets The state
OF Missouri, through the governor, had
offered heavy reward for Jesse James,
dead or alive. Bob Ford went to James
house and stayed with him two months
without getting a chance to kill him.
Then Bob sent for his brother, and
one day when the two were in the
room with James, my MIR. Howard
was led into a trap. Bob remarked to
Jesse, who was in his shirt-sleeves. that
he ID better take off his belt of pistols, as
hasa In iprp hn
who might see them and think that ali
was not right. Jesse complied, and
climbed upon q chair to brush the cob.
webs from picture, when the two Ford
brothers covered him with their 32 -caliber
Smith Il Wesson guns. Jesse James fell
dead, bullet entering the head at the
base of the skull, through the occipital
bone at the forehead. A neighbor flew to
my Office and announced that MIR. How
ard was shot. ran to my patient's house
and found him dead, there being hole
in his head that admitted my finger.
The Ford brothers, after telegraphing to
Governor Crlttenden that they had killed
James, went to police headquarters and
Killed Jesse James City Marshal
Craig, who had heard of the murder q
few minutes before, did not believe that
the dead man was the far famed desper.
ado, but the prisoners insisted that the
officers would find all the marks on his
body to tally with the description sent
out, the missing finger and the scars.
When the truth was known the widest
excitement prevailed in the city. Mrs.
James broke down in the presence
of the officers and SAID: Yes, this
man is Jesse James, my husband. I'm
known men patrolled the town on horse
back during all that night, and large
force of officers guarded the Jail in which
the Ford's were. The next day the car
pet on which James was killed was cut
into little chunks by momento-hunters,
theatrical people visited the house. The
woman who owned the house kept it as
a show, and charged 25 cents head TO
show the room where the outlaw fell.
She made lot of money out Of the show,
James friends would have killed
the Fords if they had got at
them, for the outlaw had many
| admirers among those southern people.
| James dressed in a neat business suit of
| clothes, and took him for a railroad
| conductor. One day i asked Mrs. James
| if her husband was not railroad man,
and she said No; we are here from the
east looking for farm; we expect to 20
into the cattle business A popularity
| of the man was that he went to Sunday
| ScnOOl WIN MS lamlly every ounuay reg
ularly at a little Baptist church at the foot
| of the hill Abbott, the horse breeder at
st. Joseph, knew who Jesse James was
from the time he settled in st.
Joseph. He frequently missed
his fastest horse, but James left sign
telling him who had called for the AMI
nal in the nights. James was with the
| Younger brothers when the seven made
a RAID on the Northfield (Minn.) bank
and shot down the cashier in daylight.
The citizens killed two of the desperadoes
in the str eets of the town, but Jesse and
Frank James got away making their es-
were safe. The Younger brothers are
now doing life sentences in the penlten'
tiary Of Minnesota for that crime.